1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer with novel features for delivering and stacking printed pages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Printers designed for office use often have both a face-down mode, in which printed pages are delivered and stacked with the printed side facing down, and a face-up mode, in which printed pages are delivered and stacked with the printed side facing up. Many compact, low-cost printers designed for personal use, however, have only a face-up mode.
A conventional printer of the latter type is illustrated in FIG. 1. The main body 50 of the printer has a front panel 50a and a back panel 50b. A media rack 51 is attached to the main body 50 near the top of the back panel 50b. The media rack 51 is connected to a media feed-in guide 20 that slopes diagonally downward inside the main body 50, the media rack 51 and media feed-in guide 20 forming a media supply unit 54. Printing media (not shown) loaded into the media rack 51 pass through an inlet (In) at the junction between the media rack 51 and media feed-in guide 20 as indicated by arrow A, the front edge of the media thus coming into contact with a feed roller 52.
When printing starts, the feed roller 52 rotates to guide the media along a path indicated by arrow B, past an image-forming unit 53 and a fusing unit 56. The image-forming unit 53 transfers an image onto each media page, and the fusing unit 56 fuses the image onto the page.
A delivery unit 11 feeds out the printed media in the direction indicated by arrow C, with the printed side facing up. The delivered pages are stacked upright with their trailing edges resting on a delivery ledge 55, which is disposed just in front of the inlet (In).
A conventional printer of a different type has a media loader disposed below the front panel. The media are fed from the media loader through the image-forming unit and fusing unit. The printed media are fed out with the printed side facing up, and stacked upright with their trailing edges resting on a delivery ledge at the back of the printer.
Because these conventional printers stack the printed media face up at the back of the printer, the page order is reversed, which is inconvenient, and the operator has to reach across the printer to retrieve the printed media, which is also inconvenient.